DOMESTIC HAPPINESS.

BY G. E. SARGENT.

LONDON:

GROOM BRIDGE AND SONS,

PATERNOSTER ROW.

184.

270. c. 339.

1

THE chapters which compose the following little work have already become extensively known through the medium of a widely circulated periodical; it is thought, however, that they possess sufficient importance to justify their separate publication. The principles laid down will go far, if carried out, to remove the causes of domestic discomfort and infelicity; and the sources of positive happiness are shown to consist, not so much in mere outward circumstances as in the cultivation of the domestic affections, and the careful discharge, not only of the more obvious duties of life, but of the less thought of details, upon which, after all, the sum total of domestic happiness principally depends.

In the following chapters, no untried or impr.. ticable schemes are brought forwards. Nothing, it is believed, is stated that experience has not proved to be true, or that will not commend itself to the reason and good sense of almost every thoughtful person and besides, and above all, when religion is referred to, as it must be in the treatment of

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*The Family Economist.

ii.

such subjects, the statements are, it is hoped, supported by the Highest authority and sanction.

The Editors are glad of this opportunity of publicly stating their obligations to the Author, for his esteemed services in connexion with the publications they conduct; feeling assured, also, that his reputation will not in the smallest degree suffer from the publication of Domestic Happiness and Home Education in the present Series, divested as they now are of their anonymous character.

DOMESTIC HAPPINESS.

CHAPTER I.

"In the pursuit of happiness, in which all are, to a greater or less degree, engaged,” observes a popular writer, "we not unfrequently overlook the source of the purest and most substantial of all earth's joys. We row far, and toil hard, for that which may most easily be obtained at our own fire-sides."

'Home," he continues, "is the congenial soil of the purest affections, and the noblest virtues of the heart. Why has God filled the earth with these little bands of united individuals, called families, if he had not in this arrangement, designed to promote the virtue and the happiness of men? If there be anything that will soothe the agitating passions of the soul, which will calm that turbulence of feeling which the din and bustle of the world so frequently excite, it is the soothing influence of a cheerful fire-side. If you would find the noblest specimens of human nature-if you would find warm sym